Jayson Tatum says he’s back to full strength, and that’s the kind of line Celtics fans have been waiting to hear as training camp opens.
The star forward, now 16 months removed from Achilles’ tendon surgery, said he feels fully healthy heading into the first week of camp, according to the Associated Press’ Kyle Hightower. Tatum pointed to the work he got in over the offseason as the reason he’s in a better place physically.
“I feel great having this offseason to get stronger,” he said. “Get more explosive and just work on my body in totality. So, obviously feel much better than I did this time last year and I’m excited and thankful for that.”
With Jaylen Brown out of the picture, Tatum is stepping into the role of clear-cut leader in Boston. He said he’s comfortable with that responsibility and described leadership as something that changes depending on the person and the group.
“Yeah, very comfortable. This is Year 10,” Tatum said.
“Leadership is about a lot of different things. Awareness is the biggest one.
Self-awareness, awareness of the group. And just understanding we all have roles and we’re just kind of simply in this together.
So it looks different from person to person.”
Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division, new Celtics center Mitchell Robinson says he’s open to whatever role comes his way, whether that means starting or coming off the bench, Keith Smith tweets. Robinson also said he spent the offseason attacking one of the biggest issues in his game by shooting “a lot” of free throws. He’s a career 50.8% shooter at the line.
Robinson also made it clear he expects to be ready for a full workload when the season starts. In an interview with “CP The Franchise,” he said he won’t be under any minutes restrictions.
“I’ll be able to play back-to-back so I’m very excited for that. It’s been a long time coming,” he said.
“Now I can go out there and play basketball and not have to worry about not playing this game. Just go out there with a free mind and just hoop.”
Kawhi Leonard, meanwhile, declined to get into the league’s punishment of him and the Clippers after a lengthy investigation found the team violated salary-cap rules, Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports reported. Leonard was fined $700K but avoided a suspension.
At Toronto’s media day, Leonard made it clear he wanted the focus on the Raptors, not the case that had hovered over him for weeks.
“I’m excited to be here… I think the best decision is to move forward… (The investigation) already was a distraction for the last 70 days… I just want to talk about the Toronto Raptors,” he said.
Leonard led Toronto to its only championship before leaving for the Clippers in free agency. He was traded back to the Raptors this offseason, though that deal wasn’t made official until the investigation wrapped up. Leonard said the pull of Toronto never really went away.
“A big part of it was fans, legacy, us doing the impossible here,” he said of returning to Toronto. “Just the energy of the city. I really enjoyed it… The energy and the people are why I wanted to come back.”
Former Knicks assistant coach Daisuke Yoshimoto is also on the move, joining the Sixers as an assistant coach and head video coordinator, according to BasketNews. Yoshimoto spent 2020-25 in New York in a mix of coaching and player-development roles.
In Other News...
Scottie Barnes Sounds Ready For The Offensive Role Raptors Wanted
At Raptors media day, Scottie Barnes made it clear he wants a bigger say in how Torontos offense is shaped this season. The All-Star forward talked about being more aggressive with the ball and looking for his own scoring chances instead of leaning so heavily toward the pass, a stance that lines up neatly with the outside calls for him to become more of a go-to option.
Barnes is still entering a team context where Kawhi Leonard remains the most established scorer, but the interesting part is how Toronto might balance the two. If Barnes follows through on that more assertive approach, the Raptors could be moving toward something closer to a shared offensive lead than a simple one-two arrangement, and that change would say plenty about how far the team expects him to go. [Read more 🡒]